Новости за 13.01.2023

As China has relaxed its zero-COVID policy and made it much easier for travelers to come and go, a surge of infections has prompted some countries, including the United States, to impose new testing requirements for anyone arriving from China. Each Chinese traveler boarding a flight from mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau must present a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than two days prior. Beijing has pushed back on the increased screening, even though each foreign traveler entering China must also present a negative COVID-19 test. Читать дальше...

A military-backed court in Myanmar has reportedly sentenced 112 Rohingya Muslim refugees to jail terms after they were caught traveling outside refugee camps, as the entire group was on its way to Malaysia. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported on January 10 that the Bogale township court sentenced the group of “Bengalis”— a pejorative the authorities in the country use to identify Rohingyas — to two to five years imprisonment on January 6 for traveling “without legal documents.” ... Читать дальше...

VOA Connect Episode 261 - We visit the Word Museum in Washington D.C and meet people who are repurposing day-to-day things into works of art.

A California couple is creating a new form of art using words from old dictionaries. Learn how they got started and what prominent person acquired their art. Producer | Camera | Editor: Genia Dulot

Meet Remington Robinson, an artist who paints miniature oil paintings in Altoid Tins. Dive into his creative process and find out how he uses social media to connect with fans and buyers. Director | Camera: Aaron Fedor, Producer: Kathleen McLaughlin, Editor: Kyle Dubiel

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

After three years of closed borders under its strict “zero-COVID” policy, China reopened its doors to allow international travelers in — and Chinese with cabin fever out — a move with economic implications around the world, including in Africa. On the continent, which counts China as its largest trade partner, African importers who sell cheap Chinese-made goods said they were itching to return to China to stock up while many African countries are also hoping to attract Chinese tourists. While... Читать дальше...

The United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of the alleged leader of the 2019 attack on Nairobi's Dusit D2 hotel complex. The attack in the Kenyan capital killed 21 people, including a U.S. citizen, and injured 30 others. Kennedy Macharia was working at the complex on January 2019 when he heard gunshots. He and some of his colleagues barricaded themselves inside their office until police found them and led them out. However, two of his colleagues were shot and killed. Читать дальше...

Police in Hungary said Friday one police officer was killed and two others injured when they were stabbed while responding to a disturbance at a Budapest apartment complex. A Budapest police department statement said the officers responded to a call late Thursday at the building in the city’s Ujbuda district and discovered a man trying to break down a door into an apartment. Police said the suspect attacked the officers with a knife as they tried to detain him and ran into the street where a fourth officer fired at him... Читать дальше...

China’s borders are open for the first time since the pandemic began, and some of its citizens are heading to the United States in their first trips outside the country. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has this report, with contributions from VOA’s Mandarin Service. Camera:  Genia Dulot, Wang Ping, Anne-Marie Fendrick

An American citizen who had been detained in Russia for nearly a year was released Thursday.     Taylor Dudley, who is 35, was detained when he crossed from Poland into Kaliningrad, near Moscow, last year in April.     CNN reports the Michigan resident’s detention was not widely reported because his family wanted the negotiations for his release to remain private.   He was attending a music festival in Poland, but it is not clear why he crossed the border into Russia.     It appears that... Читать дальше...

Ethiopia’s army says Amhara forces that allied with them in the war against Tigrayan rebels have withdrawn from a strategic city in the region as part of a November peace deal. Ethiopia’s military in a statement said Amhara forces have started withdrawing from northern Tigray region. The statement Thursday said the regional forces, which fought alongside the Ethiopian government against Tigrayan rebels, were ordered to leave the town of Shire and its surroundings. Ethiopia’s defense force deputy army chief... Читать дальше...

A recently published report in a U.S.-based magazine says Iran is likely using facial recognition technology to monitor women’s compliance with the country’s hijab law. While there are other ways people can be identified, Wired magazine says Iran’s apparent use of facial recognition technology against women is “perhaps the first known instance of a government using face recognition to impose dress law on women based on religious belief.” Iran announced late last year that it would begin to use recognition technology to monitor its women. Читать дальше...

At least nine people died in tornadoes that destroyed homes and knocked out power to tens of thousands in the U.S. Southeast, local officials said on Friday, and the death toll in hard-hit central Alabama was expected to rise. The storms on Thursday stretched from Mississippi to Georgia. At least five tornadoes touched down in central Alabama, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jessica Laws. One of those twisters potentially tracked about 150 miles (241 km) from southwest Selma... Читать дальше...

Japan plans to start releasing more than a million tons of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean this year, a top government spokesperson said Friday. The plan has been endorsed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but the government will wait for "a comprehensive report" by the U.N. watchdog before the release, chief Cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Cooling systems at the plant were overwhelmed when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami in 2011... Читать дальше...

A New York man pleaded guilty Thursday to a hate-crime manslaughter charge for beating a Chinese immigrant who was collecting cans to earn money. Jarrod Powell, 51, is expected to get a 22-year prison sentence for the 2021 death of Yao Pan Ma. The killing drew national attention as part of a rise in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in New York and around the country. "This unprovoked attack took the life of Yao Pan Ma and took away a sense of security for so many in... Читать дальше...

A top U.S. intelligence official on Thursday urged Congress to renew sweeping powers granted to American spy agencies to surveil and examine communications, saying they were critical to stopping terrorism, cyberattacks and other threats. The remarks by Army General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, opened what's expected to be a contentious debate over provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expire at year's end. The bipartisan consensus in favor of expanded... Читать дальше...

The United States has announced plans to create a more agile marine unit based in Okinawa to help defend its ally, Japan, and the entire Indo-Pacific region from increasing threats from China. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.

Amin Murad Manan recently received a phone call that he had been expecting since fleeing his native city of Afrin in 2018, when the Turkish military and its Syrian proxies invaded the Kurdish-controlled territory in northwestern Syria. "The call was from my cousin, who still lives in Afrin, telling me that my family's agricultural land was now being turned into a settlement for Arabs from other parts of Syria," he told VOA in an interview. Manan, 59, has been living as a displaced person in Qamishli... Читать дальше...

China's foreign ministry in Hong Kong urged the British government to stop its "so-called half-yearly report on Hong Kong," state media reported on Friday local time. A spokesperson at the ministry branch said Britain's report "grossly interfered with Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs, and seriously trampled on international law." Britain criticized what it said was the systematic erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong by the Chinese government and a crackdown on free speech by authorities... Читать дальше...

President Joe Biden’s lawyer said Thursday that more documents had been found at his Delaware home. Earlier this week, classified documents from the Obama-Biden administration were found at a Washington think tank where Biden had an office after his vice presidency. VOA’s Laurel Bowman reports.

Last year was one of the the warmest on record, according to data released Thursday by two U.S. government agencies, and was marked by numerous instances of severe weather around the globe, many of which are exacerbated by global warming. The Earth’s average global surface temperature was 0.86 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average in 2022, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This made it... Читать дальше...

Iranian state media published a video on Thursday that they said showed British Iranian national Alireza Akbari, who is facing the death penalty for spying, played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist. The video was aired a day after state media said a death sentence had been given to Akbari, who previously served as Iran's deputy defense minister, on charges of spying for Britain, which has demanded he be released. Iran has not said when Akbari's sentence will be carried out. Читать дальше...

After a long battle to elect Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, Republicans are looking ahead to their priorities in the 118th Congress. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson previews looming debates over border security, the debt ceiling and investigations into the Biden administration.